Schools

Roosevelt Middle Named a National Blue Ribbon School

The River Forest school was named on Friday as one of 219 public schools nationwide to receive the highly prestigious national honor, one of just five Illinois middle schools.

River Forest’s captured one of the nation’s highest awards for a school’s achievements in education on Friday when word came down from the U.S. Secretary of Education that the school has been named as a Blue Ribbon School for 2012.

Roosevelt was named in the category of “Exemplary High Performing” (the other is for “Exemplary Improving”), honoring the school for stellar performance in academics and extracurricular activities and for general high quality of education.

Principal Larry Garstki cited the school’s wide range of opportunities for its students—quality classrooms and teachers, a variety of extracurriculars, options for honors classes, independent-study and online courses—as factors that make Roosevelt stand out.

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“The blue ribbon schools are recognized as model schools nationally,” Garstki said. “It validates what we do as professionals here in education and specifically at Roosevelt School… It’s a great honor and a real feather in the cap for all the teachers here. The teachers are really excited about it, and they ought to be.”

Garstki will travel to Washington, D.C. along with Roosevelt eighth-grade science teacher Linda Kriegermeier on November 12th and 13th to accept the award.

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Schools may not apply for Blue Ribbon designations without first being nominated by the top education official of their state. Roosevelt began the application process after being nominated in the fall of 2011.

“Certainly while the faculty, staff and administration don’t work hard every day for the purpose of earning an award, it’s certainly a nice reflection of their commitment and dedication to the students of River Forest,” said District 90 superintendent Ed Condon.

“We’re very fortunate that in our community we have so many of the necessary prerequisites for students’ success. We have a talented staff, hardworking students, engaged parents and a supporting community, and we’re very fortunate that with all of these ingredients we’re able to serve our students well.”

The other Illinois middle schools honored this year were Bryan Middle (Elmhurst), John L. Nash (Clifton), Gower (Burr Ridge) and Tri-Valley (Downs).


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